Kentucky race report

Rookie Brad Coleman Shines Under Kentucky Lights
SPARTA KY (7-7-06)--Rookie Brad Coleman came from one lap down to
win the WLWT Channel 5-150 under the lights Friday night at Kentucky
Speedway, claiming his first ARCA RE/MAX ...

Rookie Brad Coleman Shines Under Kentucky Lights

SPARTA KY (7-7-06)--Rookie Brad Coleman came from one lap down to
win the WLWT Channel 5-150 under the lights Friday night at Kentucky
Speedway, claiming his first ARCA RE/MAX Series victory in his sixth
series start.

"We definitely had a great car," said Coleman. "I
can't thank my team enough. I don't think my team wanted to
get worried--they didn't tell me I was a lap down. It was a lot of
fun moving back up to the front. I love going through traffic and weaving
back and forth through cars. At points, it was pretty scary
though."

Coleman, who is part of a driver development program for Brewco
Motorsports, parked his car on the front stretch, climbed out, and took
several bows to the crowd before driving his No. 62 Federated Car Care
Ford into victory lane.

The 100-lap event was lengthened to 110 laps to accommodate a
green-white-checker finish after several late-race cautions.

Frank Kimmel, a four-time Kentucky Speedway winner, settled for second in
the No. 46 Pork the Other White Meat Ford after leading 24 laps.

"We had a good car," said Clements. "It was a little
tight in the middle; it felt good to get out there and finish one of
these races. I passed a lot of cars under green."

Chuck Weber, in the No. 24 Cardinal Tool Company Ford, finished 4th after
leading one lap, while Damon Lusk rounded out the top-five in the No. 65
Construct Corps Dodge.

Kimmel took the lead for the first time on lap 58 when he stayed out on
the racetrack as Coleman and Erin Crocker, who had been running first and
second, stopped to pit. Both drivers dropped one lap down when the
caution flag waved for a stalled car on the access road on lap 62.

"I knew there would probably be another caution," said
Kimmel. "We had about 20 to go there and we kind of got away from
the second and third place car."

Coleman, Crocker and several others got their lead back on lap 69, after
a caution flag came out for Richard Johns, who had spun in turn four. By
lap 88, Coleman found his way back to the lead.

Crocker, who earned the Pork Pole Award earlier in the day, led a total
of six laps but finished 27th after making contact with Matt Hagans on
lap 93. Crocker's Hamburger Helper Dodge slammed into the wall,
effectively ending her day. She was uninjured.

Hagans was able to continue racing but retired on lap 99 after an
incident involving himself, Billy Venturini and Justin Drawdy after they
went three-wide racing for position. There were no injuries.

In all, the caution flag flew nine times for a total of 51 laps, making
for some very interesting restarts.

"We had an awesome racecar tonight," said Kimmel. "But
the bottom line was that we just got beat by a stronger car tonight.
Bill (Kimmel) kept asking me all night what he could do to the car to
make me better and there really was nothing that he could do for me, the
car was perfect, a little tight in turns one and two all night, but I
could drive it to the bottom of the race track and just about hold the
throttle down through the turns. But Brad (Coleman) was just a rocket
tonight. On those last two restarts, I tried to stay with him and then
we would get to the backstretch and he could pull away from me by a
couple car lengths."

Ryan Howard finished ninth in the No. 59 Williams Bros Lumber Chevrolet
after driving through the tri-oval grass on a lap seven restart. Blake
Bjorklund rounded out the top-10 in the No. 32 Country Joe
Racing/Bjorklund Motorsports Dodge, recovering from a lap 13 incident and
a lap 84 spin.

"We were lucky some late cautions worked in our favor. We just
babied the car until the end to get a solid finish. After last weekend,
we needed to just finish the race in one piece and we did that,"
said Bjorklund.